The space around the body crucially serves a variety of functions, first and foremost, preserving one's own safety and avoiding injury. Recent research has shown that emotional information, in ...particular threatening facial expressions, affects the regulation of peripersonal-reaching space (PPS, for action with objects) and interpersonal-comfort space (IPS, for social interaction). Here we explored if emotional facial expressions may similarly or differently affect both spaces in terms of psychophysiological reactions (cardiac inter-beat intervals: IBIs, i.e. inverse of heart rate; Skin Conductance Response amplitude: SCR amplitude) and spatial distance. Through Immersive Virtual Reality technology, participants determined reaching-distance (PPS) and comfort-distance (IPS) from virtual confederates exhibiting happy/angry/neutral facial expressions while being approached by them. During these interactions, spatial distance and psychophysiological reactions were recorded. Results revealed that when interacting with angry virtual confederates the distance increased similarly in both comfort-social and reaching-action spaces. Moreover, interacting with virtual confederates exhibiting angry rather than happy or neutral expressions provoked similar psychophysiological activations (SCR amplitude, IBIs) in both spaces. Regression analyses showed that psychophysiological activations, particularly SCR amplitude in response to virtual confederates approaching with angry expressions, were able to predict the increase of PPS and IPS. These findings suggest that self-protection functions could be the expression of a common defensive mechanism shared by social and action spaces.
Worry is considered a key feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), whose neural correlates are poorly understood. It is not known whether the brain regions involved in pathological worry are ...similar to those involved in worry-like mental activity in normal subjects or whether brain areas associated with worry are the same for different triggers such as verbal stimuli or faces. This study was designed to clarify these issues.
Eight subjects with GAD and 12 normal controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mood induction paradigms based on spoken sentences or faces. Sentences were either neutral or designed to induce worry. Faces conveyed a sad or a neutral mood and subjects were instructed to empathize with those moods.
We found that the anterior cingulate and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex Brodmann area (BA) 32/23 and BA 10/11 were associated with worry triggered by sentences in both subjects with GAD and normal controls. However, GAD subjects showed a persistent activation of these areas even during resting state scans that followed the worrying phase, activation that correlated with scores on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). This region was activated during the empathy experiment for sad faces.
The results show that worry in normal subjects and in subjects with GAD is based on activation of the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions, known to be involved in mentalization and introspective thinking. A dysregulation of the activity of this region and its circuitry may underpin the inability of GAD patients to stop worrying.
Policymakers’ incentives during election campaigns can lead to decisions that significantly affect deforestation. Yet this is rarely studied. For Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a highly biodiverse ...tropical forest, we link federal‐and‐state as well as municipal elections to annual deforestation between 1991 and 2014. Across 2253 municipalities, those with higher deforestation see a significant rise in deforestation during federal‐and‐state election years. Municipal election years raise deforestation for locations with lower deforestation, whereas all of these increases are accentuated when there is party alignment between different levels of government. This effect of election cycles has fallen over time, to date, yet that cannot be assumed to continue. Our results highlight the need to limit opportunistic behaviors that affect natural resources and the environment with implications for biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services.
ABSTRACT Introduction This study explored the possible mediating role of emotion dysregulation in the association between perfectionism and eating psychopathology symptoms. Method One hundred ...forty‐two outpatients with eating disorders (EDs) were enrolled. Perfectionism, emotion dysregulation, ED psychopathology, anxious and depressive symptoms were assessed. Correlation, mediation and 95% bias corrected and accelerated (BCa CI) bootstrapped analyses were run. Results Emotion dysregulation was found to mediate the association between concern over mistakes perfectionism and restraint (indirect effect: 0.093, BCa CI: 0.001–0.02, adjusted R 2 = 0.3324, p < 0.001), shape concern (indirect effect: 0.0130, BCa CI: 0.004–0.03, adjusted R 2 = p < 0.001) and weight concern (indirect effect: 0.0142, BCa CI: 0.004–0.03, adjusted R 2 = 0.2986, p < 0.001). Conclusion Among ED outpatients, emotion dysregulation may be involved in the association between concern over mistakes perfectionism and persistence of eating psychopathology symptoms. Emotion dysregulation could be considered as possible therapeutic target to reduce the persistence, and severity, of eating psychopathology symptoms among ED patients with concern over mistakes perfectionism.
Peripersonal space represents the area around the body where objects are coded in motor terms for the purpose of voluntary goal-directed actions. Previous studies have suggested that peripersonal ...space is also a safe space linked with our private area, influencing interpersonal space in social contexts. However, whether these two spaces rely on similar embodied processes remains an open issue. In the present study, participants observed a point-light walker (PLW) approaching them from different directions and passing near them at different distances from their right or left shoulder. While approaching, the PLW disappeared at a distance of 2 m and the task for the participants was to estimate if the interpersonal distance, at the time the PLW would have reached their level, was comfortable or not. Between two sessions of comfort judgments, the participants manipulated a 70 cm tool entailing an extension of peripersonal space, or a 10 cm tool entailing no extension of peripersonal space. The results revealed that the comfortable interpersonal distance was larger when the PLW crossed the mid-sagittal plane of the participants than when it approached them laterally, with a concomitant increase of response time. After participants manipulated the long tool, comfortable interpersonal distance increased, but predominantly when the PLW trajectory implied crossing the participants’ mid-sagittal plane. This effect was not observed when participants manipulated the short tool. Two control tasks showed that using the long tool modified the reachability (control 1), but not the time to passage (control 2) estimates of PLW stimuli, suggesting that tool use extended peripersonal space without changing perceived visual distances. Overall, the data show that comfortable interpersonal distance is linked to the representation of peripersonal space. As a consequence, increasing peripersonal space through tool use has the immediate consequence that comfortable interpersonal distance from another person also increases, suggesting that interpersonal-comfort space and peripersonal-reaching space share a common motor nature.
Spatial relations (SRs: coordinate/metric vs categorical/non metric) and frames of reference (FoRs: egocentric/body vs allocentric/external element) represent the building blocks underlying any ...spatial representation. In the present 7-T fMRI study we have identified for the first time the neural correlates of the spatial representations emerging from the combination of the two dimensions. The direct comparison between the different spatial representations revealed a bilateral fronto-parietal network, mainly right sided, that was more involved in the egocentric categorical representations. A right fronto-parietal circuitry was specialized for egocentric coordinate representations. A bilateral occipital network was more involved in the allocentric categorical representations. Finally, a smaller part of this bilateral network (i.e. Calcarine Sulcus and Lingual Gyrus), along with the right Supramarginal and Inferior Frontal gyri, supported the allocentric coordinate representations. The fact that some areas were more involved in a spatial representation than in others reveals how our brain builds adaptive spatial representations in order to effectively react to specific environmental needs and task demands.
•Egocentric and Allocentric FORs have been combined with Categorical and Coordinate SRs.•The neural correlates of the deriving combinations have been identified.•Coordinate and Categorical Egocentric processing involved fronto-parietal areas.•Coordinate and Categorical Allocentric processing involved occipital areas.•Coordinate spatial relations were more supported by the right part of the brain.
The concept of “presence” describes the quality of subjective experience in immersive virtual reality (IVR). Presence refers to a specific state of consciousness: we behave and feel as if we actually ...were in the virtual world even though we know there is nothing there. In their handbook of Virtual Reality, Burdea and Coiffet (Virtual reality technology, Wiley, New York,
2003
) suggested that the experience of presence in IVR would emerge from the combination of three Is:
Immersion
or capacity to isolate from the external world,
Interaction
or capacity to naturally exploring the virtual environment, and
Imagination
or individual aptitudes with mental imagery. So far, several studies have investigated the technological and psychological factors affecting the degree of immersion and interaction. However, no study has explored the relationship between perceived presence and mental imagery. Here we aim at filling this gap through a correlational study comparing self-reports about sense of presence and mental imagery abilities. After experiencing two IVR scenarios (an art gallery and a living room), 142 male and female users were administered with questionnaires assessing the degree of presence (Igroup Presence Questionnaire), the degree of vividness (Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire) and control (Test of Visual Imagery Control) of subjective mental images. Results showed a clear positive correlation between presence and vividness: the higher the vividness of mental images the stronger the reported sense of presence felt in IVR scenarios. Instead, the capacity to control mental imagery showed a weaker association with presence. We may conclude that individual differences in the degree of perceived presence and mental imagery ability are associated.
Literature suggested that metacognitions are involved in eating problems and may be relevant to the understanding of Binge Eating Disorder (BED). The goal of the current studies was to develop the ...first self‐report instrument on metacognitions about binge eating. In Study 1, a community sample completed the Metacognitions about Binge Eating Questionnaire (MBEQ); an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed. In study 2, a community sample completed the MBEQ and measures assessing severity of binge eating, irrational food beliefs, anxiety, depression, impulsiveness. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed. Concurrent and incremental validity were assessed. In study 3, a clinical sample of participants with a diagnosis of BED completed the MBEQ and other measures. Bivariate correlational analysis and hierarchical linear regression were performed. Participants from the general population and participants with a diagnosis of BED were compared. EFA and CFA supported a two‐factor solution consisting of positive and negative metacognitions about binge eating. Concurrent and incremental validity were acceptable. The metacognitions factors correlated positively with anxiety, depression, irrational food beliefs, impulsiveness in the community sample, and anxiety, irrational food beliefs, impulsiveness in clinical sample. The metacognitions factors contributed to the prediction of BEDs symptoms, in community and clinical samples, over and above age, gender, impulsiveness, anxiety, depression, irrational food beliefs. The MBEQ possesses good psychometric properties and appears a reliable and valid measure of positive and negative metacognitions about binge eating. Metacognitions about binge eating could be a therapeutic target to reduce the severity of binge eating episodes.
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